A/N: Sorry it's taken so long to update. Class has kept me crazy busy as midterms were this last week, and my teachers are slave drivers. SLAVE DRIVERS I TELL YOU! *phew* Anyway, I'm hoping to start up again with a more consistent update schedule. Here's chapter four, offered as penance. :D It's unbeta-ed, because I wanted to get this out there ASAP for you all (those who are actually following...). Thanks to wolfergirl, for being a great beta and a really wonderful alarm clock every time Wednesday rolls around... even if I haven't listened to it all that well recently. :0 Thanks anyway. ;) It's short, but more is coming, sooner than last time, I promise.
Disclaimer: I don't own anything that you may recognize. That includes characters, lines, locations and more.
Kate reached over and picked up the phone on her desk before it got the chance to even finish the first ring. It had been a slow day, and she was desperate to get out from under the mountain of paperwork she had to do. "Beckett," she answered quickly, secretly praying for a case even though she felt bad about it afterwards. She supposed she could claim temporary insanity out of boredom if it came down to it.
"Yes, Detective Beckett. I have a homicide case for you on 4th and Lexington. It's already an odd one, your team needs to get down there as soon as possible."
"Odd how?" A frown creased her brow. It was odd when someone classified a case as odd to begin with.
"Guy who called in the body said he woke up right next to it and doesn't remember a thing from last night. Seems like he was real jittery, too. He might try to bolt. I'll send you over the transcripts."
"On it, thanks," she replied quickly, hanging up the phone and standing up in one smooth motion. She shouted across the bullpen for her partner and the head of her team. "Esposito! Body dropped on 4th and Lex, we're supposed to get there quick."
He nodded and stood quickly. "Right. Ryan, why don't you take Karpowski and meet us over there. Beckett, you you come with me." She nodded and fell into step right behind him.
As they rode over to the crime scene, Kate went over the contents of the transcript file emailed to her on her phone. "This doesn't make any sense," she remarked offhand.
"What doesn't make sense?" Esposito kept his eyes focused tightly on the road ahead, weaving in and out of traffic with his lights on.
"This guy. He sounds like a total lunatic."
He smirked. "Most deranged killers are, Beckett."
She rolled her eyes at him. In a lot of ways, he was like a big brother to her, teasing her and pulling her pigtails. But at the same time Kate knew that Javier Esposito was immensely protective of her, as was Ryan. "No duh. But the guy called in the body, freaking out, then swings into I-didn't-do-it mode and his defense is that he would have done it differently. Then he's all cagey on the personal questions but is all distraught over everyone finding out."
"Sounds to me like he's the guy we want to hit up for questioning first."
They pulled up to a fancy apartment building where some uniforms already were setting up outside. "You been waiting for us?" Esposito asked with a grin one of the younger female uniforms. Kate rolled her eyes as the girl stammered, unsure of what she was supposed to respond with other than a "Yes sir" and a somewhat flustered appearance.
"You're too kind," he teased before growing serious again. "All right, let's move!"
They finally reached the correct apartment and drew their weapons at the ready outside of the door. Esposito signaled for silence as he started to countdown on his fingers. Right on cue, Espo kicked down the door.
The door swung open with a bang. "NYPD! On the ground! Now!"
Castle's eyes went wide in shock and he immediately dropped to his knees and threw his hands up in surrender as the police swarmed the apartment. Officers were everywhere, all at once. Castle shook as he waited.
Beckett didn't even see the the topper yet, but she did find the body. "Oh, God. Esposito," she called, turning her head away briefly from the scene. Espo came over, swore and covered his nose. There was a plethora of foul-smells emanating from the room. Blood was practically everywhere, the body lay on the bed, and there was a puddle of what appeared to be vomit on the other side of the bed. Kate turned away with a sour look on her face and she followed her boss out to meet with their suspect. When she saw him, though, she froze. His eyes met hers with fear. For a moment, their eyes were locked on each other, staring, until Esposito finally interrupted. "You Richard Rodgers?" he asked.
Castle slowly dragged his eyes away from the pretty woman who was looking at him strangely to the man asking the questions. "Yes," he wet his lips.
"You called in this body?"
"Yes," he spoke again, more confident this time.
"Do you mind telling us a little bit of what happened here?"
A hard edge entered into his eyes, almost frantic with fear. "I didn't do it!" He turned to look at the woman. "You believe me, right?"
"We're not jumping to any conclusions yet, sir. Just answer the questions. Now. What happened?"
"I don't know what happened!" his voice raised a few octaves in protest. "I don't remember!"
Esposito turned to Kate and gave her a look. "All right. Would you come down to the station with us so we can chat about what you didn't do some more?"
Castle glanced between the two detectives warily. "Am I under arrest?"
"Not yet," he responded cryptically. "Now come on."
"Wait," Kate spoke up, garnering the attention of both men. "Before we go, is there anything of yours here, anything you can identify at all?"
Castle rose to his feet and shifted around nervously. "Uh, no. Not that I recognize. I'm wearing all my clothes, now. I don't think anything else is mine. Except for the stomach acid on the floor, anyways. From this morning, when I... uh, you know."
Kate nodded. "All right then." Quickly, Esposito grabbed him by the arm and led him out into the hall and down towards the squad cars.